Roger Homan asked me on the radio last Saturday if I thought that the Red Sox were tuning John Farrell out the way the team had tuned out Terry Francona before Tito and the team ended their relationship in unceremonious fashion more than two winters ago (saying "two winters ago" implies that this past winter has ended - which I am not certain of at the moment). Frankly, I had not thought of the year's team in such a way - I have offered plausible excuses for the inconsistencies of the World Champions in this space over the past few weeks.

Then after I saw David Ortiz missing from yesterday's line-up I recalled that resting players heading into an off-day was one of Francona's favorite things in the world. Hadn't Ortiz just been given a day off last week? Wasn't the team one win away from reaching .500? Didn't the team have off today and two-days next week? Then you factor in the projected rain in the area tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday and you have to be wondering whether the team will have an extra day off due to a rain-out this week. Unless Big Papi is sick or injured I cannot imagine why he warrants two-days off in the first four-weeks of the season when he is batting four or five times a game.

Of course I also saw the Farrell gave Mike Napoli a day off earlier in the Toronto series - this seemed to be expected given the unsightly angle of the bearded one's finger after his slide into second base last week. Why wouldn't Farrell give Napoli the benefit of two straight days off instead of Ortiz? This, to me, is the type of decision-making that leads to dissension within a clubhouse.

Through-out 2013 John Farrell could do no wrong. He was the perfect manager for a team looking to bounce-back from the Bobby Valentine fiasco the year before and the beer and chicken collapse that directly or indirectly led to Francona's ouster the September before that. Farrell rode a no-nonsense style with direct communication and he got the most from the players. If this team is in fact tuning him out after last season's improbable run than it becomes incumbent on Ben Cherington to again change the dynamic in the clubhouse.

Personally, I don't think that this team has shutdown on Farrell already, but I think it is pretty evident that the World Series hang-over is a real thing. Yesterday's 7 - 1 loss to the Blue Jays was certainly not as ugly as the 14 - 5 defeat by the Yankees on Thursday night in Boston, but at this point the Sox need to get back to the business of winning instead of just treading water. Sitting Ortiz was not the right message to send to the team or to the fans. There should be more of a sense of urgency and maybe that will become more evident as the calendar flips to May. I wonder if this is a talented enough crew to just turn things on when they become interested again. Farrell may have to make people a little more uncomfortable to stir some passion.